by Byron Williams
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/byron-williams/republican-filibuster-may_b_358411.htmlOn August 29, 1957, South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond set the record for the longest filibuster on the Senate floor.
Thurmond made congressional history when he finally yielded the floor after speaking continuously for 24 hours and 18 minutes in order to block civil rights legislation.
In retrospect, it is an unfortunate legacy in that Thurmond tied up the Senate for more than a day by exploiting a parliamentary procedure that allowed an individual senator to hold the floor until two-thirds of the Senate voted for their colleague to relinquish it.
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Democrats have something more powerful that Thurmond did not have to contend: a 24-hour news cycle.
Thurmond's filibuster was behind closed doors. The mystery surrounding the filibuster no longer exists with the advent of C-SPAN and the various cable news networks.
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This is a game of political chicken and Democrats must be willing to call Republicans on their threat. A filibuster would be a live expose, succinctly explaining why Democrats reclaimed Congress in 2006.